61 U.S.

3
20 How. 3
15 L.Ed. 800

ROBERT H. WYNN, EXECUTOR AND DEVISEE OF

WILLIAM WYNN,
DECEASED, PLAINTIFF IN ERROR,
v.
CHARLES B. MORRIS ET AL.
December Term, 1857

THIS case was brought up from the Supreme Court of the State of
Arkansas, by a writ of error issued under the 25th section of the judiciary
act.
The case is fully stated in the opinion of the court.
It was submitted on printed arguments, by Mr. Pike for the plaintiff in
error, and by Mr. Watkins and Mr. Bradley for the defendant.
The arguments upon both sides were directed almost entirely to the merits
of the case; the question of jurisdiction was made by the counsel for the
defendant in this manner:
If the decision of the court below had been against the right claimed by
Mrs. Taylor, under the act of Congress of the 29th of May, 1830, she
would have had a right of appeal, but Wynn would not; although the case
might be said to involve the construction of that act, because,
confessendly, he does not claim any right under it.
The decision being in favor of the right, there is no ground left for the
appellate jurisdiction of this court to rest upon, unless the plaintiff can
make it appear that the decision of the court below involved the
construction of the act of September 4th, 1841, and was against a right
claimed under that act for granting lands to the State of Arkansas.
But, according to the case made by the bill, the State does not and cannot
claim any title to this land under the act of 1841. Whether the plaintiff
ever acquired any right to it from the State or under the selection, is purely

a question of contract, or of private grievance, as between him and the

State. True, he must trace his title back to the act of 1841. But in that
sense, every disputed land case might come up to this court, as all titles
are more or less remotely derived from the United States.
Mr. Justice CATRON delivered the opinion of the court.

The complainant filed his bill in a State Circuit Court in Arkansas, to enjoin
Morris from executing a writ of possession founded on a recovery by an action
of ejectment for the northwest quarter of section 18, in township 16, south of
Red river.

Wynn alleges that the whole of the quarter section was cultivated by him, and
had been for years before the inception of Morris's title, and that he, Wynn,
claimed title to the land through the State of Arkansas, and that Morris had
obtained a legal title in fraud of Wynn's superior right in equity.

Morris claims through Keziah Taylor. In 1829 and in 1830, when the occupant
law of that year passed, she was a widow, and cultivated a small farm on the
land in dispute; she sold out her possessions there in the latter part of 1830, left
the country secretly, and settled permanently in the Mexican province of
Coahuila and Texas, and there she remained without returning to Arkansas until
December, 1842, when she made her appearance, proved her cultivation in
1829, and her continuing possession in May, 1830, in the form prescribed by
the act of that year, had her pre-emption allowed, entered the land, and sold it
to Morris. She got a patent in 1844.

The reason why Mrs. Taylor did not enter the land at an earlier day was, that
the township No. 16 was not surveyed until 1841, and within one year before
the date of her entry.

Wynn seeks a decree on the ground that Morris procured Mrs. Taylor to enter
the land for Morris's benefit, when she had no right of pre-emption, because of
the abandonment of her possession for more than ten years.

The register and receiver held that a preference of entry was vested by the act
of 1830, and they refused to investigate the fact of abandonment. This opinion
was concurred in by the Commissioner of the General Land Office. And, to
correct this alleged error, the bill was filed. The State Circuit Court refused the
relief prayed; adjudged that Mrs. Taylor obtained a valid title to the land, and

decreed damages against Wynn for detaining the possession. From this decree
he appealed to the Supreme Court of Arkansas, where the decree of the Circuit
Court was affirmed, and to that decree Wynn prosecutes his writ of error out of
this court; and the first question here is, whether we have jurisdiction to reexamine and reverse or affirm the decree of the State courts. This can only be
done in a case where is drawn in question the construction of a statute of the
United States, &c., and the decision is against the title set up or claimed under
the statute by the losing party. If Wynn had no title, of course he could not
claim under a law of the United States, and cannot come here under the 25th
section of the judiciary act of 1789, merely to draw in question the decree
which dismissed his bill.
7

To this effect are the cases of Owings v. Norwood's lessee, (5 Cra. 344;)
Henderson v. Tennessee, (10 How., 311.)

Wynn sets up a pretension of claim to the land in dispute through the State of
Arkansas, which State was authorized to locate 500,000 acres of land by acts of
Congress passed in 1841 and 1842; and the complainant insists that he had
made a contract with the State, through her locating agent, Charles E. Moore,
who was acting under instructions from the Governor of said State, to the effect
that he, the complainant, should be allowed to purchase the land from the State
at two dollars per acre. But the State did not locate this quarter section, nor had
it an interest in it at any time; so that the title was outstanding in the United
States till Keziah Taylor made her entry.

The complainant, Wynn, having no interest in the land but a naked possession,
not protected by an act of Congress, we order that his writ error be dismissed
for want of jurisdiction.